Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress
and singer. She is the recipient of several awards, including two
Golden Globe AwardsGolden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. She has also been
nominated for three
Academy AwardsAcademy Awards and four Tony Awards.
Linney made her Broadway debut in 1990 before going on to receive Tony
Award nominations for the 2002 revival of The Crucible, the original
Broadway productions of Sight Unseen (2004) and Time Stands Still
(2010), and the 2017 revival of The Little Foxes. On television, she
won her first
Emmy AwardEmmy Award for the television film Wild Iris (2001), and
had subsequent wins for the sitcom
FrasierFrasier (2003–04) and the
miniseries John Adams (2008). From 2010–13, she starred in the
Showtime series The Big C, which won her a fourth Emmy in 2013. In
2017, she began starring as Wendy Byrde in the
NetflixNetflix crime drama
series Ozark.
Linney is also an established film actress. She made her screen debut
in the film
Lorenzo's OilLorenzo's Oil (1992) and went on to receive Academy Award
nominations for
You Can Count On MeYou Can Count On Me (2000), Kinsey (2004), and The
Savages (2007). Her other films include Primal Fear (1996), The Truman
Show (1998), Mystic River (2003),
Love ActuallyLove Actually (2003), The Squid and
the Whale (2005), The Nanny Diaries (2007), Sully (2016), and Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).

Early life and education[edit]
Linney was born in Manhattan. Her mother Miriam Anderson "Ann" Perse
(née Leggett) was a nurse at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center, and her father
Romulus Zachariah Linney IV (1930–2011) was a
playwright and professor.[1][2][3][4] Linney's paternal
great-great-grandfather was Republican U.S. Congressman Romulus
Zachariah Linney. She grew up in modest circumstances, living with her
mother in a small one-bedroom apartment.[5] She has a half-sister
named Susan from her father's second marriage.
Linney is a 1982 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite
preparatory school in New England for which she currently serves as
the chair of the Arts Advisory Council. She then attended Northwestern
University before transferring to Brown University, where she studied
acting with Jim Barnhill and
John EmighJohn Emigh and served on the board of
Production Workshop, the university's student theater group.[3] During
her senior year at Brown, she performed in one of her father's plays
as Lady Ada Lovelace in a production of Childe Byron, a drama in which
poet
Lord ByronLord Byron mends a taut, distant relationship with his daughter
Ada.[6]
Linney graduated from Brown in 1986.[7] She went on to study acting at
the
Juilliard SchoolJuilliard School as a member of Group 19 (1986–90), which also
included Jeanne Tripplehorn.[8] She received an honorary Doctor of
Fine Arts degree from Juilliard when she delivered the school's
commencement address in 2009.[9]
Career[edit]
Film[edit]

Linney at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

Linney first appeared in minor roles in a few early 1990s films,
including
Lorenzo's OilLorenzo's Oil (1992) and Dave (1993), before coming to
prominence in the public television miniseries
Tales of the CityTales of the City in
1993.[3] She was then cast in a series of high-profile thrillers,
including Congo (1995), Primal Fear (1996) and Absolute Power (1997).
She made her
HollywoodHollywood breakthrough in 1998, playing Jim Carrey's
on-screen wife in The Truman Show, for which she received critical
acclaim.[3] Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in the 2000 film You Can Count On Me.[3] The same year,
she also appeared in the role of an artist's model in the low-budget
film Maze with Rob Morrow. In 2003, Linney appeared in several notable
films, including The Life of David Gale, Love Actually, and Mystic
River. The latter film earned her a BAFTA Award nomination for Best
Supporting Actress. Her 2004 performance in Kinsey, again as the title
character's wife, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress.[3] In 2005, Linney starred in the horror film The
Exorcism of Emily Rose and the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale.
For the latter role, she received a
Golden GlobeGolden Globe nomination for Best
Actress in a Musical or Comedy. In 2006, Linney appeared in the
political satire Man of the Year, the comedy
Driving LessonsDriving Lessons (starring
Rupert GrintRupert Grint of
Harry PotterHarry Potter fame), and the Australian drama Jindabyne
by Ray Lawrence. Jindabyne was based on Raymond Carver's short story
So Much Water so Close to Home. In 2007, Linney appeared in the spy
thriller Breach, the comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries opposite Scarlett
Johansson and Chris Evans, and based on the book by Emma McLaughlin
and Nicola Kraus,[10] and The Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman.[3]
She received a third Academy Award nomination for The Savages, this
time for Best Actress.[11] In 2008, Linney starred in The Other Man,
opposite Liam Neeson, with whom she had starred in Kinsey and Love
Actually, and Antonio Banderas. In 2012, she starred opposite Bill
Murray in Hyde Park on Hudson. In 2016, she starred in Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
Television[edit]
Linney starred as Mary Ann Singleton in the television adaptations of
Armistead Maupin's
Tales of the CityTales of the City books (1993, 1998, and 2001). She
won her first Emmy Award[12] in 2002 for "Outstanding Lead Actress in
a Miniseries or a Movie" for Wild Iris. In 2004, she won her second
Emmy as "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," for her
recurring role as the final love interest of
FrasierFrasier Crane in the
television series Frasier.[3] In 2008, she won an Emmy in the category
"Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie" for her
portrayal of Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United
States, in the HBO miniseries John Adams.[3] In October 1994, Linney
guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order (episode "Blue Bamboo")
as Martha Bowen. She played a blonde American singer who successfully
claimed "battered woman syndrome" as a defense to the murder of a
Japanese businessman. Linney returned to series television as actress
and executive producer in Showtime's half-hour series about cancer,
The Big C, which debuted in mid-2010. She starred as a suburban wife
and mother who explores the emotional ups and downs of suffering
cancer, and the changes it brings to her life and her sense of who she
is.[13] She won a
Golden GlobeGolden Globe award for her performance in January
2011. Since 2009, Linney has served as host of the PBS television
series Masterpiece Classic. In 2017, she starred alongside Jason
Bateman in the
NetflixNetflix crime drama series Ozark.[14]
Theater[edit]
Linney's extensive stage credits on Broadway and elsewhere include
Hedda Gabler, for which she won the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award,[15]
and Holiday in December 1995 through January 1996 (based on the 1938
movie starring Katharine Hepburn).[16] She received a Best Actress
Tony AwardTony Award nomination for her role in the Broadway production of The
Crucible in March 2002 through June 2002.[17][18] She was nominated
again in 2005 for Sight Unseen, in which she appeared on Broadway in
May 2004 through July 2004.[19][20] Linney also appeared on Sandra
Boynton's children's CD, Philadelphia Chickens, on which she sings
"Please Can I Keep It?," and played La Marquise de Merteuil in a
revival of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses.[21]
Linney had a three-month run on Broadway in the
ManhattanManhattan Theatre Club
production of Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies, from January 28,
2010, through March 27, 2010. She was nominated for a 2010 Tony award
for Best Leading Actress in a Play. The play returned to Broadway with
most of the original cast in September 2010 and closed on January 30,
2011.[22]
She appeared on Broadway in the revival of The Little Foxes, which
opened officially on April 19, 2017 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
She alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie with Cynthia Nixon.[23]
Personal life[edit]
Linney married David Adkins in 1995; they divorced in 2000.[24][25] In
2007, she became engaged to Marc Schauer, a real estate agent from
Telluride, Colorado.[26] On her wedding day in May 2009, actor Liam
Neeson walked her down the aisle.[27] On January 8, 2014, Linney gave
birth to a son, Bennett Armistead Schauer.[28] Linney was a guest and
presenter at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the
Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.[29]
Filmography[edit]